What Rate Shoppers Say Their Homes Are Worth: A $350,000 National Median Across All 50 States
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Across the United States, people shopping mortgage and home equity rates online at FreeRateUpdate report a median home value of $350,000. The figure comes from 524,808 rate-shopper reports gathered between September 1, 2025 and September 1, 2026, and every state and the District of Columbia has enough reports to publish a number of its own.
Now, every index in the country will tell you what a house is worth. How many of them ask the person who lives in it?
That is the distinction worth holding on to. A home price index answers the question "what are homes worth", inferred from what has sold and what is listed. This answers a different one: what do the people actively shopping for a mortgage believe their own property is worth? Every figure below began as a number somebody said out loud at their own kitchen table, working out whether a refinance was worth the paperwork. That is not an appraisal. It is measured rather than estimated, and it is a different question rather than a better answer.
It also means these are not a random sample of homeowners. They are people refinancing, tapping equity, or buying, at a particular moment and for a particular reason.
Every state, highest to lowest
| State | Median reported home value | Sample (rate-shopper reports) |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | $840,000 | 2,564 |
| California | $700,000 | 47,715 |
| Massachusetts | $620,000 | 8,987 |
| District of Columbia | $600,000 | 550 |
| New Jersey | $560,000 | 12,958 |
| Utah | $560,000 | 4,572 |
| Washington | $560,000 | 11,760 |
| Colorado | $520,000 | 8,511 |
| New York | $520,000 | 14,431 |
| New Hampshire | $480,000 | 2,897 |
| Rhode Island | $480,000 | 2,036 |
| Oregon | $460,000 | 7,386 |
| Nevada | $450,000 | 6,496 |
| Idaho | $440,000 | 3,672 |
| Montana | $440,000 | 2,063 |
| Connecticut | $420,000 | 5,386 |
| Maryland | $420,000 | 9,972 |
| Arizona | $400,000 | 14,264 |
| Alaska | $396,000 | 1,138 |
| Delaware | $380,000 | 2,542 |
| Virginia | $380,000 | 15,690 |
| Florida | $370,000 | 45,245 |
| Vermont | $360,000 | 982 |
| Maine | $350,000 | 2,471 |
| Minnesota | $340,000 | 6,274 |
| Wyoming | $340,000 | 1,232 |
| Georgia | $330,000 | 21,058 |
| North Carolina | $320,000 | 23,149 |
| South Dakota | $320,000 | 1,001 |
| Tennessee | $320,000 | 15,006 |
| New Mexico | $310,000 | 3,946 |
| South Carolina | $310,000 | 13,204 |
| Texas | $310,000 | 41,126 |
| Wisconsin | $300,000 | 7,778 |
| Pennsylvania | $290,000 | 19,938 |
| Illinois | $289,000 | 15,635 |
| North Dakota | $280,000 | 767 |
| Missouri | $260,000 | 10,364 |
| Nebraska | $260,000 | 2,518 |
| Alabama | $250,000 | 10,849 |
| Indiana | $250,000 | 12,741 |
| Kansas | $250,000 | 3,932 |
| Michigan | $250,000 | 15,670 |
| Kentucky | $240,000 | 8,485 |
| Ohio | $240,000 | 20,028 |
| Oklahoma | $230,000 | 7,240 |
| Arkansas | $220,000 | 6,201 |
| Iowa | $220,000 | 4,337 |
| Louisiana | $220,000 | 7,578 |
| Mississippi | $210,000 | 6,293 |
| West Virginia | $200,000 | 4,093 |
| United States | $350,000 | 524,808 |
Hawaii sits alone at the top
Hawaii reports the highest median in the country at $840,000, and it is not a close race: it clears California, in second at $700,000, by a hundred and forty thousand dollars. West Virginia anchors the other end at $200,000. Top to bottom, that is a spread of a little over four to one.
Maine, as it happens, lands exactly on the national median of $350,000.
Read the sample column, because it is not decoration
Hawaii's $840,000 rests on 2,564 reports. California's $700,000 rests on 47,715. Both are real figures and they do not carry the same weight, and the same caution applies to the District of Columbia at $600,000 from 550 reports, the thinnest sample here. Sixteen states publish medians drawn from fewer than four thousand reports. A number from a small sample is not wrong. It is simply held more loosely, and anyone citing one ought to say so.
The busiest states are not the expensive ones
Here is the part that tends to surprise people. Rate shopping gathers where people are, not where houses cost the most. California, Florida and Texas produce the three largest samples in the country, at 47,715, 45,245 and 41,126 reports. Yet of the ten states generating the most rate-shopping activity, seven report medians below the national figure: Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois. California is the exception that makes the rule visible, sitting first in both columns at once.
Volume follows population and how often people move. It does not follow price.
One thing worth knowing
What you think your home is worth and what an appraiser says it is worth are two different numbers, and the distance between them stops being academic the moment you borrow against it. Your own estimate sets what you expect. The appraisal sets your loan to value, which is what decides the rate you are offered and whether you carry mortgage insurance. Every figure on this page is the first kind of number. When you refinance or take out equity, the second kind is the one that signs.
So it is worth knowing roughly where your house stands before a lender tells you. Find your state above, then remember that your own number leans on your credit, your equity and your particular street far more than on any state median.
Know your number before you need it.
Figures are medians of property values reported by consumers who were actively shopping mortgage or home equity rates on FreeRateUpdate.com during the window September 1, 2025 to September 1, 2026, and were last updated September 1, 2026. The data refreshes monthly. Values pass automated quality filters, and a median is published for a geography only when its sample is large enough to be meaningful. Sample sizes vary widely by state and are shown for every figure so each can be weighed accordingly. These are self-reported figures from real shopping activity, not appraisals, not estimates modeled from public listings, and not a valuation of any individual property. Rate shoppers are not a random sample of homeowners. National and state level figures are published at freerateupdate.com/home-values.
